Read the rest of this entry »
Official Blog of Wilkins & Associates
You are currently browsing articles tagged .
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates is hosting their 3rd Annual Blood Drive at the Route 209 office across from Pocono Palace, north of Marshalls Creek on Saturday, August 28th between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates have been supporters of the American Red Cross for a number of years, including hosting the Bloodmobile and answering phones at the annual telethon hosted by the Honorable Mario Scavello and others. Said Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO, “Being good neighbors and offering our parking lot as a place for the American Red Cross to take blood is something that was started by our Realtors three years ago.”
You can pre-register and reserve a time by calling the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates Bushkill office at (570) 588-3440 and asking for Christine Scrofano, Vice President.
The reasons and benefits of you donating blood are–it feels good to donate, you get free juice and cookies, blood is something that you can spare (most people have blood to spare yet there’s still not enough to go around), you’ll be insuring that blood is on the shelf when it’s needed (most people don’t think they’ll ever need blood, but many do) and last but not least, you’ll be someone’s hero–in fact, you may help as many as 3 people with just one donation of blood.
Please be a donor and stop by to see us!
Read the rest of this entry »Stroudsburg - Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates announced the hiring of 5 fulltime Realtors® to their sales team. Said Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO, “What a great group of guys we hired. Each one of them brings his own expertise in the real estate industry to the table.”
Hired were David R. Haseney, Jerel Schmon, Michael Quigley, Thomas LaBar and Richard Mazzarella, all Realtors with the Poc Mtns Assoc of REALTORS®.
David R. Haseney has lived in the Poconos for the past 37 years. Haseney is a graduate of the Penn State Extension and has been in general real estate for the past 22 years. Haseney is a member of the Poc Mountains Assoc of REALTORS®.
Jerel Schmon is a native of the Pocono Mountains and is the newest member to the real estate industry with 5 years tenure in the business. Schmon lives in Tannersville with his wife and two young children and is a graduate of the Pocono Real Estate Academy. Schmon enjoys snowboarding and playing baseball.
Michael Quigley is a retired NYPD sergeant. Quigley as been a member of the Poc Mountains Assoc of REALTORS® for the past 23 years and has served on a number of committees during his tenure. Quigley is also a member of the Honor Legion with the New York Police Department. Quigley lives in Saylorsburg.
Thomas LaBar, a native of the Poconos, resides in Cresco. LaBar is a 2000 graduate of the Pocono Real Estate Academy and has a Bachelors Degree in biology from ESU. Labar owned and operated LaBar Builders, Inc. from 1979 to 1999. LaBar is a member of the Pocono Mountains Builders Association, PARC.
Richard Mazzarella has lived in the Poconos for the past 8 years and now resides in Thornhurst. Prior to getting into the real estate industry 6 years ago, Mazzarella was in the mortgage field. Said Mazzarella, “I liked the real estate side of the transaction a lot better then the mortgage side of it.”
All of the Realtors will take part in the specialized career development courses available only at the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate office. In addition to that, the Agents will begin marketing from the BHG greenhouse and take an active part in LeadRouter a specialized buying and selling software program available only through Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates is one of the largest real estate companies in the Poconos and prior to their consolidation maintained 14 offices throughout the Poconos. They now occupy 2 offices and have changed their business model to include hybrid agents and day-desks. They can be visited online at www.wilkins1.com
Read the rest of this entry »
Thomas R Wilkins CEO
While our Management team was prepared for, understood what to do and reacted properly to the downturn in the real estate market (every real estate boom comes to an end) we were not prepared for the financial meltdown of the banking industry which forced the country (at large) into the deep recession we’re now in. One of the problems was that there were not nearly as many transactions taking place, nor were the sales taking place at the same price as they had previous. What ended up happening to the real estate industry was the perfect storm, aimed at what could have been a perfect disaster. But there was another problem happening at the same time. The problem was overhead, the expenses. The market fell so quickly and so fast it was impossible to reel in expenses as fast as the market was falling. There were three (3) primary areas–1. employee costs, 2. health costs and 3. the subject of today’s blog, office rent.
In an effort to quickly control expenses, we went through a very big consolidation of our (what was at one time) 14 offices. We are now operating with 2 offices; one being at our Bushkill location and the second being at 304 Park Avenue in Stroudsburg which we consider our corporate headquarters. Making those decisions was one of the hardest things I have done in my 25 year career, but since I went through a recession previously, I knew what had to be done. Mobile technology along with the bad economy has forced Brokers to pare down their square footage.
Does that mean that as a leader in the Pocono real estate industry we are done expanding and life is simply going to remain the way it is now?…the answer to that question is, of course, “no”.
Instead, my Managers and I, in particular Dominick J. Sacci, Sr V.P./General Manager, developed what’s called a day desk which (because I don’t like the word virtual) is a desk that’s used by an agent for the day and the next day it can and will be used by another agent at Stroudsburg. We have 8 day desks located in what we call the North Wing, South Wing and the West Wing. Each of these “wings” are fully equipped with copy-paper, paper clips, staplers, scrap paper, pencils, pens and are attractively presented to the agent when they come to work that day. The walls are attractively painted in warm pastel colors and further decorated with plants and motivational posters. Housekeeping of the North, South and the West Wings is done daily, which includes the cleaning of the waste paper receptacles and Windex-ing the desks as well.
Secretarial services are available through (what we call) Central Processing. The agent is very well taken care of and all with no office fee.
Printing, scanning and all of the computer and copy/fax services are available to any of the agents who work out of any of the Wings. We found that agents work more from their homes, but we still encourage they “do business” in the office and that they invite their customer to see their work area. They can do that now because we maintain the work area, the wings and the Tech Room.
What was a matter of survival has turned into a fun project at a very low cost.
Then, we needed to develop the agent and thus (remember I don’t like the word virtual) came the hybrid Realtor. The hybrid Realtor is one that works from the corporate office but their home may be located in an area far from the corporate office. Their market place could be Blakeslee, Lake Harmony, Hamlin, Lake Wallenpaupack, Scranton or even Wilkes-Barre. We made sure that while they’re outside of the office, they have the ability to link in to any of the software programs that we utilize as well as the inventory and any of the programs available to them just as if they were in the office. As I suggested, today, most agents operate from home anyway and this is just an added extension for them. The best part of this is that the agent can market themselves 24 – 7.
We are very sensitive to the needs of the Realtor so when the hybrid Realtor does come into the office, we make sure that they are comfortable and well taken care of. A huge red carpet is rolled out for them. We wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m happy to say that we are very pleased with the way the Agents are reacting. And what a recruiting tool.
What this has enabled us to do is keep our overhead low while still maintaining a strong market presence that includes all of the Poconos, Pike and Monroe county, as well as Northeast Pennsylvania at large.
We’re developing now (meaning we’re expanding) a format for a very small branch office or what we call a “coffee shop”. This is an office that has a conference room, reception area and for all intents and purposes…that’s it. It’s a place where the agent will meet the customer and feel comfortable that they’re able to get to know the customer before they go out on the road. While these “coffee shop” offices may or may not be open 7 days a week, the overhead that it takes to run them is small when compared to maintaining a full scale office with desks, telephone systems and such. It’s all about overhead in todays (and tomorrow’s) real estate market. I don’t think you’re going to see that change even if another real estate boom would happen.
Our first “coffee shop” will be in Mt. Pocono and scheduled to open January 1st of 2011. The location is great for walk-ins and, in the end, won’t cost much at all; very little overhead.
After that expansion, we’re targeting other very high traffic areas and towns. Whether it’s Honesdale, New Hope, Jim Thorpe, Lake Wallenpaupack or even at ski areas themselves, all are a part of our expansion plans. Appreciate that the market has not changed yet, but when it does we want to be right there!
Well… the cutting edge, that’s the place to be and certainly where you need to be if you want to exceed in the real estate field today.
Thomas R. Wilkins is the author of this blog. Wilkins is CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates and was the first franchisee to become a BHG Broker in June of 2008. At the height of the market Wilkins maintained 14 retail offices and had over 100 fulltime agents. Today, he maintains two offices with 80 agents and 7 potential agents going through schooling at the time this article was written.Visit them at www.wilkins1.com
Stroudsburg - Sherrill L. Thorne has joined Pennsylvania First Settlement Services as an Escrow Officer. Thorne, prior to joining Pennsylvania First, was employed by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates as a Reservationist and previous to that was a Better Homes and Gardens Realtor in the West End office.
Thorne has 9 years experience in the title business and will work from the 304 Park Ave, 2nd floor office. “Our policy is always to promote from within”, said Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO. “Sherrill was a huge asset in our Vacation Rental Department and was one of the founding members of that department, so while I’m sad to see her go, we’re happy that she accepted the position at Pennsylvania First.” said Patricia Blank-Toombs, V.P./Sales Manager.
Pennsylvania First Settlement Services provides title and settlement services to real estate Brokers throughout the Northeast Pennsylvania region. Office hours are
Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Pa1st’s website is http://www.pafirstsettlement.com
